It is well known that the way that a user interacts with a computer is much different today than it was even a few years ago. Each component part of the user interface (including, e.g., the operating system) has undergone a tremendous evolution in functionality since the first personal computer appeared. Although today things are much better than they were in the era of command-line interfaces, the current metaphor for dealing with the operating system, i.e., the desktop metaphor, is at least 20 years old.
The desktop metaphor has become the predominant method of allowing a user to interact with a computer. Its visual approach to file manipulation was adopted early on by operating systems from Atari®, Amiga®, and Macintosh® and continues today in virtually every modern operating system. The many advantages of using a desktop-based approach should be clear to anyone who has ever used such. Among those advantages are, that the user need not memorize a complex command syntax as is required, for example, in Unix; that individual files are easily located and manipulated (e.g., copied, deleted, duplicated, etc.), the desktop metaphor is well suited to use with a mouse or other pointing device, the workings of the software desktop in many ways mimic the user's actual desktop which makes training a user who is new to this approach much easier than it might be otherwise, etc.
The desktop is the point of entry for the typical user who seeks to access and manipulate data and content on his or her personal computer. As has been mentioned previously, the desktop has also undergone a variety of developmental steps, wherein the core functions remained more or less unchanged, but additional functionality has been added. The functionality improvements depend, of course, to some extent on the operating system in question and include, introduction of the “dock” (Mac OS X™), the taskbar (Windows®), the quick launch bar (Windows®), and the use of small information aggregating programs (Widgets/Gadgets) that are connected to the Internet to provide the user with dynamic information regarding, for example, weather and/or stock developments, etc.
The increasing availability of widgets or gadgets illustrates another development trend. Over the last 10 years, the Internet has developed into a global medium for communication of data to the point where its importance in the everyday lives of its users has grown to the same level as that of TV, radio or print media. This development can be attributed to the evolution of the Internet from a simple network which was originally designed to facilitate the transfer of publications and data between academics into a network through which all manner of multimedia and other data (e.g., video, audio, etc.) are available and transferable.
This transformation of the Internet into a medium accessible by the consumer in ever growing numbers naturally led businesses onto the Internet. Initially, these companies were only interested in displaying their own company information on their website. However, today there is a mass migration of business interests onto the Internet which, in extreme cases, has resulted in businesses that have no presence outside of that network. Obvious examples of such businesses include Google® and Yahoo®, whose main business is the provision of search services to the user which is funded, of course, by the sale of advertisements/placement of advertisements that a user views along with their search results.
Of course, the companies listed previously are not the only ones that have adopted the “whole-business-into-the-Internet” model. Salesforce® for example is providing hosted software solutions to its customers. Amazon® is another well-known company that does not have a brick and mortar presence and is reachable by its customers only via the Internet. Further, familiar desktop applications are similarly being migrated onto the Internet. Applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, and calendar software, etc., which have traditionally been desktop-based, are becoming increasingly available via the Internet. The pricing model of this sort of software is in flux, with pay-per-use models and low cost (or free) open-source products being made available via this approach.
Developments in the business world, however, do little to help the situation of the average user who would similarly like to exploit the power of the Internet for his or her personal purposes. The computer industry has done a good job of teaching users how to operate within the desktop environment but has done little to extend that model beyond the user's own personal computer. However, the user who ventures out on the Internet will be forced to interact with web sites that utilize a different operational metaphor, e.g., the “hyperlink” metaphor. Within a web browser, the familiar desktop metaphor is replaced by applications running within multiple windows and a user interface that relies on completely different operating conventions, conventions that would be used on a Windows desktop (e.g., in most situations a user cannot “drag” a file from within a browser and “drop” it on the desktop in order to download it).
Thus, this mass migration onto the Internet has necessitated a paradigm shift on the part of the casual user who was just becoming familiar with the desktop approach.
However, a more recent development in Internet user interfaces involves the use of web-tops or web-desktops, wherein these web-desktops represent the online form of the standard desktop with which the user is familiar. In brief, a web desktop is a “virtual desktop” on the web. Web-desktops feature functionality that is typically available as part of the standard desktop metaphor including, for example, mouse-based control, the availability of familiar applications such as calculator, email, word processing, media player, etc.
Web-desktops utilize, more or less, the familiar “desktop” metaphor as a means of allowing the user to control the Internet experience. This approach typically allows a user to interact with the Internet in familiar ways and, in some cases, further allows the execution of remote (or local) applications. Additionally, in some cases the web-tops provide for functionality such as instant messaging, chat or file sharing, etc. One advantage of web desktops is that they are designed to allow a user to save files and settings over the Internet rather than just to the local desktop.
A typical approach to file sharing via a network is static and is administered and controlled by a strict order of events which is suited to accommodate the logic of the computer rather than the needs of a user. The sorts of steps that are typically required in order to initiate file sharing typically include: selection of the file or folder that is to be shared, specification of how the selected file or folder is to be shared (the assignment of access rights), and, identification of who can access the folder or file (including specification of information that uniquely identifies each authorized user or group). To correctly obtain and enter the information required by these steps is a complex and involved process.
As a consequence, a casual user may find it very difficult to distribute and control access to files, folders or information, in general, to other users. This is especially true in instances where there are multiple files and/or possibly multiple recipients. In cases where multiple files, folders, and or users are involved, correctly specifying access rights may prove to be a task too complex for the average user. Further, after such rights are established it can be very difficult to determine, after the fact, what rights were granted to whom and with respect to which item, i.e., it can be difficult to see the big picture. Unfortunately, the state of the art in web desktops does not provide much help for the user who is attempting to arrange for file sharing within a networked environment. Of course, the standard command-line driven approach (e.g., “chmod 664”) is totally unsuitable for the novice.
Thus what is needed is a method that addresses the above mentioned problems, a method that offers a sharing approach in the web-desktop environment, and that incorporates sharing of a multitude of different data and is not limited to the sharing of single files or folders. The method should feature a completely new approach to the information sharing problem and provide the user with a graphical method of specifying access permissions
Accordingly it should now be recognized, as was recognized by the present inventors, that there exists, and has existed for some time, a very real need for a system and method that would address and solve the above-described problems.
Before proceeding to a description of the present invention, however it should be noted and remembered that the description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings, should not be construed as limiting the invention to the examples (or preferred embodiments) shown and described. This is so because those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains will be able to devise other forms of the invention within the ambit of the appended claims.